


when our stars align

by beautifulcheat (Katalyst)



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Episode: s02e06 Sex and Candy, F/M, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Mostly Canon Compliant, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, dumbasses to soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:47:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25716784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyst/pseuds/beautifulcheat
Summary: Maria and Alex had always known that they were soulmates.This was by degrees a comforting and unsettling realization for them.  On the one hand, they were each other’s closest friends in the whole world.On the other hand, Alex was very, very gay.
Relationships: Maria DeLuca/Michael Guerin/Alex Manes
Comments: 17
Kudos: 54





	when our stars align

**Author's Note:**

> Much love to ladynox, as always, for being my beta and taskmaster! <3

Maria and Alex had always known that they were soulmates.

This was by degrees a comforting and unsettling realization for them. On the one hand, they were each other’s closest friends in the whole world. 

On the other hand, Alex was very, _very_ gay. 

But soulmate marks didn’t lie. Both of them had a tiny little constellation of three stars. Alex’s was on his chest, right over his heart. Maria’s resided right under her hair, at the nape of her neck. 

Platonic soulmates weren’t unheard of, if a little disappointing after all the stories of grand, romantic love affairs. But all told, it was comforting, knowing that they were each other’s people. Like when Alex had gone to Maria’s to cry until he couldn’t breathe, back when he still lived in that hell he called his family’s house. Or when Maria dated _Chad_ , knowing that she could write to Alex and he could call her from whatever fucking desert or bunker they had him stationed in, even if it was three in the morning and he could barely function, to listen to her rant and cry. 

It was also painful. Like when Michael didn’t even say goodbye to Alex, the day he shipped out, and Alex couldn’t help thinking _Oh well, it’s not like we were meant to be._ Or when Michael swept Maria’s hair back to press a kiss behind her ear and spent far too long staring at Maria’s mark, before slowly, almost reverently brushing his mouth over it and letting her hair drop, making some lame excuse about needing to get to work. 

Michael never had a mark, as far as either Maria or Alex had ever been able to determine. They’d only talked about it once, both drunk as hell, sitting out at a table in front of the Pony while she was still mad at Guerin but finally talking to Alex again. How could she possibly stay mad at her soulmate, even if he _did_ keep alien secrets from her? 

“Wonder who he’s _supposed_ to be with?” Alex had asked, clearly trying really hard not to weave in his chair, gripping the table hard. He’d been too drunk to be tactful. Everyone knew that no soulmate mark meant that the relationship wasn’t forever.

“Hell if I know.” Maria had groaned. Maybe that boy wasn’t meant to be hers, but damn if she didn’t want to keep him forever. “Maybe no one.”

Alex had snorted… laughed, then tried to sober up. “‘s... ‘s not nice, Maria.” 

Maria rolled her eyes. “Who said I’m nice?” she asked, batting her eyelashes at him.

He laughed more… leaning his head back in his chair. “Wonder if aliens even have soulmates.” He asked, sighing deeply. And it was pretty clear that he wished that it was him… and Maria wasn’t exactly _jealous_ (how could she be jealous of her soulmate), but she definitely was feeling something, and that something was confusing.

“If we’re gonna keep talking about this, we need more tequila.” She decided. 

“Noooo more tequila, Maria, I’m already probably going to have to sleep in my car.” Alex groaned, burying his head in his arms. 

“Oh shut up.” She said, with a laugh, wrapping her arm around him. “We’ll lyft back to my place. Couch is comfy enough. Or it can be like old times and you can bunk in the bed with me. I’ll put a tarp down so you don’t puke on the pillows.” 

“Only if you promise not to elbow me in the kidney again.” He said, poking an eye out of his arms, clearly hiding a smile. 

“That was _one time_ , Alex, jeez,” she huffed… pulling out her phone to figure out the rideshare

“One time too many.” Alex protested. Falling mostly silent until their ride was there, and even letting Maria help him to the car, resting most of his weight on her instead of the prosthetic without complaint.

What were soulmates for, after all?

The conversation lay, mostly forgotten, after that. She and Alex were soulmates who just both happened to love the same stupid, infuriating, repressed alien cowboy. In a weird way, it kind of made sense that Gurin would be both of their types, and she wondered how often this happened to platonic soulmates. 

She supposed she should be happy that at least Alex understood where she was coming from. Even when it seemed like he understood Michael better than she did. 

Driving out to the bootmaker’s was good. Like old times, laughing and dancing in the car, talking about everything. Not shying away from the hard topics, the way Michael still lay between them like a primed grenade. 

Alex told her that nothing would ever make him stop loving her, and she knew that was the truth. Knew it in her bones, and she couldn’t help rubbing at her mark, with a soft smile. No matter what she lost in this life, she’d never lose Alex.

Until. _Until_ that crazy son of a bitch was laughing at her, telling her that Alex was _dead_ and moving towards her like a damned hyena stalking prey. 

Time somehow both slowed down and sped up as she raced into the cornfield, terrified and alone and _determined_ that she wasn’t gonna die out here like some god damned damsel in distress. Fuck that. It wasn’t going to be that kind of horror movie.

Michael showing up was only momentary relief, taken away the moment he went down, with an axe butt to the head. For a moment, she’d lost _both_ of them. 

For a moment, for the first moment in her life, she genuinely felt completely alone. 

Honestly, psycho killer skin suit guy was lucky she didn’t take the sharp edge of the axe to his head, considering that she could still practically _hear_ Alex scream and the horrible, hollow sound the axe made when it connected with Michael’s skull.

Seeing them both hurt but alive was a shock of joy she was never going to get out of her system. 

It was only after, when they sat tense in Michael’s truck as they sped back home, that Maria let herself really _feel_ the terror of almost losing them. Her hand was in Michael’s, her head on Alex’s shoulder, and she just tried to breathe, reassure herself that they were all safe. It wasn’t really working though, either because her own body was still shot through with adrenaline, or because Michael and Alex were practically vibrating with fear and anger and the instinct to fight or flee. 

That tension only got thicker, more intimate as they sat in Michael’s trailer together, Michael on his knees in front of them, eyes wide and soft and oh so vulnerable. Alex was tightly restrained, but looking down at Michael as if he wanted to devour him whole -- and oh but she knew that feeling. 

When Michael retreated from them, wrapping himself up in misery and fear, she couldn’t help but try to kiss the tight worry off of his pouty mouth, coming back to herself only as Alex started to shift uncomfortably, babbling some nonsense about it being late.

Letting him go right now was unthinkable. Honestly, if things were different, if she hadn’t also almost lost Michael, if kicking Michael out of his own damned home would keep Alex there, it wouldn’t even be a question. More than ever, right now, she needed Alex and Alex needed her. 

But that wasn’t the problem -- Alex wanted to stay there, not just with her, but with _both_ of them. And he wasn’t the only one. Michael leaned into her touches like a man starved, but he was sneaking guarded hungry glances at Alex.

And for the first time in her life, she couldn’t just choose Alex over everything else. Not when she’d almost lost them both.

It was obvious there was only one thing to do. To hell with Alex’s misguided sense of propriety or self-sacrificing bullshit. She pulled him into a kiss that may have lacked the heat of their kisses with Michael, but it felt like home.

When she reached her hand out for Michael’s, tugged him down to them, it felt fated, somehow.

The sex -- well she’d never _say_ it was mediocre, but it wasn’t about the sex, anyway, just then. It was about them being together, the three of them, fitting each other’s shattered pieces back into place. It was about a few tears and a lot of breathless laughter while they tried not to somehow injure themselves even more as they made the space work. 

Afterwards, they lay together, somehow folded up and around each other on the tiny bed in the Airstream. Not her favorite place on the best of days, but… tonight, on the worst of days, there was something deeply comforting about the closeness of the walls, the way the smell of bourbon and grease and rain hung heavy in the air. 

This was Michael’s home. She was safe, and warm, and loved, with the complicated asshole who had so much of her heart, and her actual soulmate.

She was bone-deep tired, but still, she couldn’t sleep. The adrenaline, she supposed. She let her fingers slide up over Alex’s arm, locked tight around Michael’s waist, up Michael’s bicep, down his collarbone, to rest over his heart. 

And that was when she saw it. A constellation on Michael’s skin -- shimmering, oil-slick stars that glowed faintly in the dark of the trailer, starting over his heart, continuing up through the hollow of his throat, wrapping up behind his ear. She let her fingers slide over them, hesitantly. Counting. 

Six stars. 

She caught Alex’s eye over Michael’s shoulder, where he was sleepily half-buried in that unruly mop of curls. 

“Hm?” He murmured, sleepily. He always knew when she wanted to say something. 

“Look.” Softly, trying not to wake Michael up, since he seemed to have dozed off. She reached to press Michael’s hair back, showing him. 

Alex hummed, staring for a moment, without seeming to really see. But then he did, and she could see dawning realization breaking over his face. 

“Have you seen these before?” He asks, softly tracing them with his free hand. 

She shook her head. “No. You?” 

He took a breath, shaking his head. A wordless no. 

“This is what I think it is, right?” Maria whispered, unable to stop touching them. The colors swirled more as she did. 

“He could have a six-starred alien soulmate somewhere out there?” Alex said

Michael stirred. Cracking open an eye. “Why’re you talking? ‘S time for sleep.” He murmured, reaching to stroke his hand over Maria’s back, twisting enough to kiss Alex at the same moment. 

It was impossible to miss how those stars flared a little brighter as he did. 

Maria took a breath, pressed a kiss over the star on his heart, knowing it would be the mirror of the one on Alex’s, and settled down. They could talk in the morning. 

Morning didn’t go the way she planned, though. She woke up to Michael kissing her shoulder and slipping out of the Airstream, leaving her alone in a bed that suddenly felt too empty, even though it was honestly barely big enough just for her.

She pulled on one of Michael’s hideous sweaters while she listened to the murmur of their voices, pulled it tight around her arms, when she heard Alex walk away. 

Alex left. And he didn’t even say goodbye.

She was going to absolutely murder him.

Maria swallowed that, buried it for now. One soulmate might have left, but there was, apparently, another right here that needed her. 

Michael, who was warm, and so sweet, so _present_ . His hands on her, grounding her, was the only thing in the world she needed. Well… maybe not the _only_ thing.

Slow morning sex was much, much better. Good enough that she could almost forget that Michael’s bed was too hard and faintly lumpy and that her bed would be so much better for this. After, she lay, curled up with Michael, her fingers tracing his chest, where the stars had been.

Why weren’t they there, anymore? Had she dreamed them? For that matter, why weren’t they there before? A million questions flooded her mind. She slid her fingers through his chest hair, peering a bit closer. 

“What are you looking for?” Michael asked her with a soft laugh. 

“Just… memorizing you,” Maria responded in lieu of a real answer. She didn’t even really know why she lied except that… Alex wasn’t there. It didn’t feel right. She pressed a kiss to his chest, and perhaps she saw just the faintest shimmer moving from where she kissed, tracing the path of the constellation she remembered.

Maybe for whatever Michael was, things were different. Maybe they only showed when he was in physical contact with them?

Ugh, she needed Alex if she was going to figure any of this out.

It was probably a blessing that other than open mic, where Alex was flirting -- _flirting_ of all things -- with Forrest over his adorably emo beat poetry, she didn’t even see Alex for almost a week after that, until he rolled into the Pony on a Monday, and ordered a beer. At least she had cooled down a bit.

It was quiet enough that she could toss aside the rag she’d been using to clean with, pop a couple beers open and hand one over to him. She assumed that’s why he’d chosen that night, so they could actually talk. 

“Why did you go?” She asked, quietly. 

Alex took a deep drink of his beer. “I had work to get to. And you two deserved a morning together.”

God, he was a dumbass. Her dumbass, but a dumbass all the same. “Don’t give me that bullshit. He’s _our_ person, Alex.” 

He took a deep breath. “I know,” he said, letting it out slowly, fidgeting a little in his barstool. “I think part of me always has, honestly.”

“Okay…?” Maria asked trailing off, waiting for him to explain this latest bout of idiocy. 

“And.” He thumbed a bit at the mouth of the beer bottle. “And I’m not ready.” 

That admission nearly floored her, and she stared at Alex in utter bewilderment. “What?” Alex looked a bit embarrassed, and honestly she could strangle him right now. “What the hell?”

Alex hummed a little. “Look. Michael has… he’s gotten a lot better. Just in the last year, he seems happier. Almost like that guy I fell in love with. But I’m not--”

“So help me, Alex Manes, if you say you’re not good enough for him, I’m going to shove this bottle where the sun don’t shine.” 

  
  
He laughed, and raised his own bottle in a little salute of concession. “Not that. Not exactly. I’m just not ready. _I’m_ not better. I mean, it’s like I said before, I’ve never been in anything real. I’m going to make mistakes, Maria.” 

“Oh my god, Alex. You’re allowed to make mistakes with the people who love you.” 

“I just. I’ve made so many that I didn’t know I was making. And I’ve hurt him so bad. I don’t want… to rely on love, or the fact that we’re destined to be together or any of that crap. I want to be good for him. God knows this relationship already has enough baggage. I can’t put him through that -- I can’t put _you_ through that just because we’re supposed to be together, you know? I want this, but I want to choose it.” 

Maria made a face, not liking this one bit, but also seeing where he was coming from, and she pulled down glasses and her best tequila. Silently pouring for them, and sipping hers. Considering him.  
  
“Okay.” She said, finally. “But there’s a timeline on this. _And_ ground rules.” 

“What?” Alex laughed. 

“Michael deserves to know he has soulmates, and until ‘you’re ready,’” she said, throwing some air quotes in there for emphasis, “I can’t tell him. One month, casual dating only, no leading anyone on, and _no_ throwing it in Michael’s face.” She folded her arms. 

Alex shook his head. “No. Come on. Six months at least. I’m very behind the curve.”

“I’ll help catch you up. First lesson: stay away from Chads. Two months.” 

“Everyone knows to stay away from Chads, Maria, this is hardly groundbreaking.” Alex was still laughing, which was a good sign. And she was getting pure relief and hope, almost happiness off of him. This could work. No, fuck that, she was going to make sure it worked, for all their sakes. “Four,” he countered. 

“Three.” She said with a smirk. “With an option for renegotiation at the end of the term. Drink your tequila.”

“Deal.” He said, with a sigh, picking up the glass and shooting it back like it was fucking Jose Cuervo. 

She gasped, horrified. “I am never wasting the good stuff on you again.” 

“You call that good?” He asked with a grin that she knew was specially designed to piss her off. 

“You’re a terrible person.” She couldn’t keep a straight face when she said that. She loved him so damned much, even when he was being a shit.

He leaned over the bar, kissing her cheek. “I’m your terrible person.” 

“Always,” she murmured, leaning into the kiss.

“Always,” Alex murmured back. It was a promise, a guarantee. No matter what happened, they’d come back together. So... Maria could wait. Not forever, but if it meant Alex was healing? She could definitely give time and space.

She drew back, stroking his cheek, fondly. “I’m so proud of you.” Softly. “Now get out of here, before I decide I can’t wait for the stars to align and you to get your shit together.” 

Alex laughed, and winked as he walked away, again. But this time, Maria knew it would be the last time. The next time he came back, he’d never leave them again. 

Fate really was a beautiful pain in the ass.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * A [Restricted Work] by [Podcath](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Podcath/pseuds/Podcath) Log in to view. 




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